A Walk In the Park
by LilyG.SVU
Summary: In the past, Barba has tried to comfort Liv but didn't know the right way to do it. This is his chance to finally get it right.


Just a little something that popped up in my head in anticipation of tonight's episode! The wait was driving me crazy. This based off of the 15 sec promo (lol) so any similarities would be purely coincidental.. although I doubt that will happen. One can dream though. Enjoy!

As Olivia exited the interrogation room she leaned up against the door as it closed. Deep breath in, and out. She tried to keep her eyes from watering, but that was proving to be difficult. If the tears started now they would be near impossible to stop. The last thing she needed was to be emotional and have her team walking on eggshells around her the rest of the day.

As she took another breath she thought back to what she revealed to the victim. Was that the right move? Did she appear less credible now? Oh God, the whole squad was watching. Had Barba arrived before or after her little confession? How would he react to it? Oh God. As a couple of tears fell through she shook her head and cursed at the inability to hold it together. She needed to get out of the hallway before the squad decided to see how she was doing. Asking her that question would only make things worse. Making sure the coast was clear, she made a B-line towards her office.

After hearing what Liv had went through, the squad was shocked. They just kept staring through the viewing window letting it all sink in. The interview was still happening, but it was all background noise at this point.

"Fin, did you know about this?" Amanda asked, figuring he would know since he's been with Liv during nearly all of her years at SVU.

He kept staring ahead of him, not really looking at anything. He slowly shook his head and looked at everyone's imploring gaze. "Nah. I like to think I'd notice if Liv was going through something like that, but I honestly never knew. She hid this one really well."

Another short silence filled the space, and Carisi noticed the interview was now coming to an end.

"Hey guys why don't we go to the break room? I don't think Lieu wants to come out and face all of us right away." He suggested as he lead the way to the vending machines.

As everyone slowly shuffled their way across the precinct Barba hung back a bit. Fin noticed and patted him on the back.

"You alright Counselor? You're lookin a little stressed out there."

Barba was staring at the ground until he finally raised his head to look at Fin. He ran his hand over his face and crossed his arms.

"I just.. I don't know how to react to this. I've told Liv things about myself, and I really thought she felt comfortable enough to tell me something like this. I could've been there for her." Barba said as he and Fin made their way to the coffee machine. He could use another cup right now.

Fin stared at him for a moment; "I didn't know you guys were dating. I guess you wanted to keep it a secret for a while first. I get that you're a private person though."

" Uhh What? No, we're not dating. We just have sidebars every once in a while when we need to talk things through." Even though he immediately thought to himself how long he's wanted to change their friendship to a real relationship. Who knows if she even wanted that at this point.

"Well I've worked with Liv for 18 years. I see how she looks at you and how you act around her. If you're scared to tell her you have feelings for her, don't be. A part of me thinks she's been waiting a while now for you to say something."

Fin gave Barba another pat on the back and left him by the coffee machine with a gaping mouth and wide eyes. How is it possible that _Fin_ of all people could see this so clearly? He thought he hid his feelings fairly well. However having Fin tell him that Liv has been waiting for his apparent delayed confession of love, it gave him hope. With a renewed energy and a mind set on helping Liv feel better, he headed over to her office where he imagined she would be.

After knocking on the door he let himself in, being greeted by the back of her office chair.

"Liv?"

He was met with silence. Barba wasn't quite sure what to do. This wasn't the first time he'd been met with an emotional Liv, but he really wanted to help her this time. The last time she was upset about Noah and close to tears in this very office, he had desperately wanted to hug her, touch her hand, something. He just wasn't sure if it would be too much. To hell with too much, he had to do something now.

Walking over to stand in front of her, he saw her silently crying. She didn't even try to wipe away her tears. It was heartbreaking and encouraging all at once. Squatting down so he was about eye level with her, he reached out one of his hands to hold hers in her lap. The other reached out to her face to wipe some of her tears away.

"Olivia."

She looks at him right away with a slight head tilt. The use of her full name had its desired effect.

"Raf, whatever you want to say or are going to try to say just don't." Liv found that exhaustion was quickly creeping in despite the fact it was barely noon. She really didn't feel like explaining anything to Rafael. She just wanted his support.

"I'm not." He whispered to her. He squeezed her hands and brushed his thumb over her cheek. Did she blush just then? He didn't pay too much attention to that as his main focus was to take her mind off of the interview.

"Come to the park with me. Let's take a walk."

She looked at him skeptically and with a bit of confusion. Then she started to gesture her hands around wildly like only she can do so well.

"I can't just leave now though, I have to follow up with the information we just got, and-"

"Yes, you can leave. Get your detectives on any leads you need to follow up on. If another interview needs to happen, have faith that your experienced number 2 will get the job done." He says to her as he stands up. He let go of her hands momentarily but reaches out again.

"Stand up. Take my hand. Smile." As he says this he devilishly grins at her, hoping to make her smile. He was also proud of his impromptu phrase that was similar to something he'd said to her in the past.

Remembering immediately, she finally grins.

"Shut up Barba, I'm coming." She says reaching out and taking his hand.

"Ouch, you haven't called me by my last name in a while. I didn't think I'd ever be saying this, but I might like Rapha better." He teases, pulling on her to walk outside of her office.

As they walk out he fully expects her to let go of his hand, but she kept a firm grip on it. He tries to keep the grin off of his face as they walk through the precinct to the elevators, but fails miserably. Fin sees this and just shakes his head in amusement as they pass him.

As they step outside into the crisp day, Liv huddles into Rafael a bit as they head to the park. She's wondering what he'll say to her and asks him as much.

"Alright _Rapha,"_ Looking at him pointedly and smirking. "You've got me out of the precinct. Are you calling a sidebar on my behalf? I didn't think we could do that." She says to him as they reach the park. Thankfully the park is relatively empty so they easily find a bench where no other people are around.

" Yeah, I didn't think so either but I'm really worried about you. How come you've never felt comfortable enough to tell me this? You know I'm here for you no matter what. I've got your back Livy." Liv's breath hitched as she looked into his eyes. The seriousness of his voice, the interlacing of fingers while he was speaking to her, and the new nickname made her feel fuzzy all over and she quite liked it.

"I know. I know I can tell you anything, but I just don't want to overuse our relationship." She shakes her head, realizing that wasn't the best way to say what she was feeling. "You were just helping me with Noah, and listened to me when I freaked out about telling one of our victims to point a loaded gun at me. I don't want to always come to you in some emotional crisis." She says looking at him to see what his reaction is.

"Well, I may know of a way to remedy that.." He says squeezing her hand and grinning a bit.

"And what is that?" She realizes what he's about to ask and smiles like a fool. Finally! She thought.

"I think you know where I'm headed with this. If you want to, I'd love to take you out sometime. Not for drinks though, I want to take you out to dinner."

"It's about damn time you stopped asking me for drinks Rapha! I didn't think you'd ever get the hint." She says to him scooting closer to him on the bench.

"Hey, don't condemn me for my poor dating etiquette. It's been a while since I've been in this position. Seriously though. I really care about you Liv, and I've felt this way about you for quite sometime now."

"Me too." She says as she stared at him with a grin on her face. Then she started to glance down to his lips and back up to his eyes again. Raising her eyebrows, she asked him "Did you get that hint?"

"Of course."

With that he leaned forward and rested one of his hands on her cheek. Their lips met slowly as they were both a bit hesitant. But once Barba's lips started moving more, Liv was more than happy to respond. Moving her arms around his neck, she deepens the kiss and feels absolute joy when Barba responds with a barely-there moan. His hands move down to her sides, and he wraps his arms around her as they continue to kiss.

After some short kisses signaling the end of their park bench make out session, she pulls back resting her forehead against his.

"So what time are you picking me up tonight?"

Thank you for reading! Please let me know how I did, constructive comments are extremely welcomed! I'm new at this, so fire away!


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